What do we Believe?
At St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, all are welcome at the table of the Lord because God loves you, no exceptions. We strive to be an inclusive community of faith where all perspectives and peoples can come to worship as one.
For the past several hundred years, church has been buildings, programs, rules, rites, and rituals. Beautiful and holy things have come from that church model. Opulence, oppression, complacency, and occasional disconnections from the life of Christ have also come from that model. The ministry of Jesus was always about bringing people into the community, not about keeping people out because of gender, sexuality, or something in their past.
A church that is focused on its mission does more than plan wonderful programs, beautiful worship, and quality education. A mission focused church commits to understanding the root causes of suffering in its community and works hard to overcome them through programs that build relationships across societal divides seeking to engage issues that are causing pain or tension. Education series are designed to equip people with the information and tools they need to be able to cast out the demons of poverty, illiteracy, violence, and crime. People attend them because they want, and need, to know what is being taught. Beautiful worship is not planned as much as it is born in response to the need to celebrate the victories of suffering defeated, and cry out in prayer for guidance and help with the problems too difficult to tackle as mere humans.
Church at its best takes seriously the words of God found in the fifth chapter of the prophet Amos:
I hate, I despise your feasts, I take no delight in your solemn assemblies… take away from me the noise of your songs… but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.